Georgia O'Keeffe's Drawing XIII is considered an early example of American abstract art.
O'Keeffe created the charcoal drawing in 1915 during a period when she was experimenting with simplified shapes, rhythmic lines, and nonrepresentational forms. Her 1915 charcoal series was groundbreaking because it expressed ideas and sensations without directly depicting recognizable objects.
Alfred Stieglitz exhibited several of these drawings at his New York gallery in 1916. Their presentation helped introduce O'Keeffe to the American art world and established her reputation as an innovative modernist.
Drawing XIII should not be confused with O'Keeffe’s later paintings Blue and Green Music or No. 13. Those titles are also associated with abstraction, but they belong to different works and periods. The 1915 drawings are especially important for showing her early move away from conventional representation.